Equity mutual funds witnessed an addition of over 34 lakh investor account in the first 10 months of the fiscal year 2015-16, mainly because of strong retail participation.
The current figure is already above the 25 lakh folios that were added for the entire fiscal year 2014-15.
According to the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) data on investor accounts with all the fund houses, the number of equity folios jumped to 3.51 crore (3,51,38,492) last month from 3.16 crore (3,16,91,619) at March-end, a gain of 34.47 lakh.
April last year had seen the first rise in folios in more than four years.
Prior to 2014-15, the equity MF sector had seen a continuous closure of folios since March 2009, following the global financial crisis in late 2008. Since March 2009, as many as 1.5 crore folios were closed.
Industry experts said growing participation from retail investors has led to a sharp increase in folios. Besides, optimism in investors too helped raise the number of investors’ account in the equity segment.
“We could continue to see a soaring retail participation in mutual funds in the remaining part of the current fiscal if domestic and global cues play their card,” Quantum Mutual Fund’s CEO, Jimmy Patel was quoted by agencies as saying.
Moreover, addition in equity folios helped increase overall investors’ base to a record high of 4.64 crore in January from 4.17 crore at the end of March.
Mutual funds have reported net inflows of over Rs 69,000 crore in equity schemes in the first 10 months of 2015-16, helping the industry grow the folio count.
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